Have You Experienced E-Liquid Flavor Fatigue?

E-Liquid Flavor Fatigue or better known as “Vaper’s Tongue,” has been an on-going issue ever since vaping came about. Chances are, if you’ve used an electronic cigarette for any length of time, you’ve experienced this flavor fatigue.

Flavor Fatigue is when you’ve used the same e-liquid flavor in any prolonged length of time, causing your favorite e-liquid to suddenly lose its flavor; seeming as if the flavor isn’t as strong as it once was and other times not noticing the flavor at all. The condition can become very annoying, especially when you’re dead set on one main flavor in your e-liquid line-up.

Many e-cigarette users call this condition vaper’s tongue, yet it has absolutely nothing to do with one’s tongue. As Katrina mentions, because of this, the community should stop referring to it as vaper’s tongue and more so as a vaper’s fatigue (we’ll replace vaper’s fatigue with flavor fatigue – because I think it’s more suitable). Katrina goes on to say that the tongue has the ability to taste five sensations: sweet, sour, bitter, salty and savory. But, it’s actually the olfactory sensors at the top of your nasal passage that allow your brain to decipher different flavors. Interesting, right?

This is all due to olfactory fatigue, also known as odor fatigue or olfactory adaptation. It is inability to distinguish or “taste” a particular odor or “flavor” after prolonged exposure. – Katrina Schuster

Now that we know exactly what flavor fatigue is and what causes it, let’s move on with how to overcome it and prevent it.

1. If you are a former smoker, your senses would have become dull, blinding your sense of taste. However, as you switch to electronic cigarettes, your ability to taste will improve over time. This can often happen over a weeks time, but for others it could take up to 6 weeks. During this process your olfactory senses can become overloaded and will shut down, causing the accursed flavor fatigue. The best cure for this is time. That’s right, this shutdown may happen several times as your sense of taste returns.

It should only last for a few hours or in some cases a few days. Eventually, your body will adjust and this should no longer keep happening.

2.Using an electronic cigarette will dehydrate you no matter what. The vapor absorbs any moisture in surrounding air and your mouth contains a lot of moisture. In other words, when you use your electronic cigarette, the vapor you’re blowing out will absorb the moisture in your mouth and will cause you to get dry mouth – a condition where a thin film forms on the inside of your mouth, blinding your tounge and olfactory senses. Like you would expect, this also results in flavor fatigue.

So, how do you prevent this from happening? – simply increase your water intake. If you get dry mouth, try drinking water during your vape sessions or anytime that you vape for a prolonged length of time. This will help hydrate your mouth and let your senses work properly.

3. Vaping the same flavor all day will make your olfactory senses become desensitized to that particular flavor, making a flavor seem weaker and weaker over time. Lucky for us, Katrina has the solution:

Fear not, to remedy this case of flavor fatigue you can take two approaches: switch to a new flavor or have a flavor rotation. I personally think that having a vaping rotation is the best method. You can also to take the approach of just switching flavors: i.e. switching from Cinnamon Roll to Butterscotch. I would recommend changing your flavors up significantly if choosing this method. For example if you usually vape Cinnamon Roll and can’t taste the flavor anymore, I would recommended trying to vape one of our other desert flavors like Butterscotch or Strawberry Shortcake instead of trying to vape something similar to Cinnamon Roll like Sticky Bun.

If you’re still experiencing issues with flavor fatigue, there’s a trick commonly used by wine tasters and perfume mixologists – it’s to inhale fresh coffee grounds.

Coffee interacts with specific chemicals in the olfaction sensors and will in turn, cause your olfactory senses to reset. So put down that e-cig, smell some coffee grounds and/or have a cup of coffee. In addition, vapers have also reported that vaping flavors like mint, menthol and cinnamon work well as olfactory cleansers. You can also keep a bottle of unflavored e juice to vape when experiencing fatigue. This will give your olfaction sensors time to reboot and you won’t be wasting flavored e juice.

And lastly, If you have found yourself trying all of the above and you’re still suffering from flavor fatigue, it may suit you well to change your PG/VG ratio the next time you purchase a bottle of e-liquid. As you may know, PG carries the flavor, while VG dampens it. Sometimes a small change can make quite the difference.

Thanks to Katrina Schuster at Mt. Baker Vapor & Jeremy at CigBuyer for sharing such an interesting and detailed article to deal with our day-to-day vaping issues.

Comments

Eerily similar to an article I wrote just 1 day prior. Katrina never used the word “flavor fatigue” and I put a lot of time and effort into writing that article. Would have been nice to get some credit…

Jeremy, I actually found the article through yours, but quoted and used the source. However, I appreciate the share very much – I mentioned and linked you for credit. And you are right, she never used the word flavor fatigue.

No problem man, my apologies. Again, big thanks for the share and very nice writing.

Gary on
February 28th, 2014 9:55 pm

Just got glass of water & snorted up some coffee grounds, should have used fresh grounds instead of using the ones out of the used coffee filter grounds but guess what it worked.
I have most problems in morning when drinking morning coffees.
But a good tooth brushing helps to.
Thanks for the info
Just got my first order 2day from MBV now looking for some info on if it’s OK to vape today or wait a couple days weeks or..

Dustin on
March 1st, 2014 1:13 pm

This has happened to me but lasted a week or so. I wish I knew this before because I had a 30 .ml of blu-bacco, the best flavor EVER and gave it away because i thought it was the 2 extra flavor shots. I went back to smoking for 2 weeks because my mvp broke but I have a new one and been vaping cinnamon roll, sticky bun and dutch apple pie for a few weeks now and not one problem. If I do run into a problem I know how to solve it. Thank you. Ordering blu-bacco now

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